Yisraeli general election, 2020

Yisraeli general election, 2020

27 January 2020 (2020-01-27)
Turnout	77.69%
Party Royalist Conservative Party Alternative for Yisrael Constitutional Liberal Party Alliance Right Bloc United Center Bloc Left Bloc Popular vote 1,936,088 1,364,987 1,056,541 Percentage 44.3% 31.1% 23.6%
President before election Noah Feldman Royalist Conservative Party Elected President Yitzchok Katz Royalist Conservative Party

The 2020 Yisraeli general election was held on January 27, 2020. It featured elections for President and the full Knesset, as well as some District gubernatorial and legislative seats and a litany of local municipal offices. This election was the first to feature a three-party contest for the presidency, and the the first in decades that realigned the Right-Left bloc ideological alignment of the Knesset, with the United Center Bloc displacing the Left as the chief opposition group.

Background

Electoral system

The presidential election is determined by an electoral college in which the plurality majority vote winner in each district wins that jurisdiction's electoral votes, with a majority of 97 EVs needed to secure a majority of the 192-vote College.

The Knesset and other elections are plurality majority direct elections in single-member districts using a first-past-the-post electoral system.

Voting eligibility

To be eligible to vote in the election, one must be:

• registered to vote with the Royal Yisraeli Election Commission;
• aged 21 years old by the registration deadline of September 27, 2019;
• a Yisraeli citizen; and
• not excluded from voting (whether by legal incompetency, found guilty of or convicted of a felony, etc.) or not disqualified from voting.

Timetable

June 27, 2019	Royal Yisraeli Election Commission staff prepared balloting and election machines for upcoming elections.
September 2, 2019	Major parties (traditionally the Conservatives and Constitutional Liberals) hold their presidential nomination conventions. Unofficial kickoff of the general election season begins.
September 27, 2019	Last day to register to vote.
November 27, 2019	Last day for independents and new parties to file to run for office on the ballot.
January 27, 2020	Election Day: National polls opened at 6am and closed at 7pm.
January 28, 2020	Election results were verified and released publicly.
February 3, 2020	The President-elect and Members-elect of Knesset and local offices were sworn in.

Coalitions and parties

At the presidential level, three coalitions contested the office: The Right Bloc (Conservatives, cross-endorsed by the Northern League and Torah Achdus), the United Center Bloc (the Alternative for Yisrael cross-endorsed by Action Yisrael), and the Left Bloc (the Constitutional Liberals cross-endorsed by the Alliance of Greens, Seculars, and Workers).

At the Knesset and conditionally at the District and local levels, the Bloc members each, to some degree, had election pacts to not run candidates against the others or at least non-aggression/no-negative advertising/cease-fire pacts in districts where their candidates were both contesting an office.

General election polling

Presidential

Three-way race

Polling firm	Date	Candidate/Political Bloc														Undecided	Type of Voters Surveyed
		Yitzchok Katz (Right Bloc)	Yosef Kaduri (Left Bloc)	Reuven Goldschmidt (United Center Bloc)

Gib'ul HaTzafone	January 26, 2020	45%	23%	30%	2%	Likely voters (with a weighted online panel)*
King David University	January 26, 2020	36%	26%	32%	4%	Likely voters
Zman Yisrael	January 22–23, 2020	39%	21%	34%	6%	Likely voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	January 22–23, 2020	45%	22%	30%	3%	Likely voters
Channel 20 TV	January 22–23, 26, 2020	46%	25%	24%	5%	Likely voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	January 22, 2020	39%	31%	29%	1%	Registered voters
HaMaariv	January 14–15, 2020	37%	22%	36%	5%	Likely voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	January 13–16, 2020	38%	17%	38%	7%	Likely voters
Union of Dati Leumi Synogogues	January 7–15, 2019	40%	15%	42%	3%**	Likely voters (with an online panel)*
King Solomon University	January 15, 2020	41%	23%	39%	5%	Likely voters
Channel 20 TV	January 14–15, 2020	42%	15%	37%	6%	Likely voters
Channel 10 TV	January 12–15, 2020	37%	18%	35%	8%	Registered voters
Zman Yisrael	January 12–13, 2020	39%	19%	38%	4%**	Likely voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	January 9–13, 2020	34%	32%	32%	2%**	Registered voters
Salomon Polling Associates, Ltd.	January 7–8, 2020	36%	36%	23%	5%	Likely voters (with a weighted cell-phone-only and online panels)*
Nishma Research	January 6–7, 2019	36%	16%	44%	4%**	Likely voters (with an online panel)*
Channel 9 TV	January 1–2, 2020	40%	15%	41%	4%**	Likely voters
Action Now Surveys (Action Yisrael)	December 29, 2019 – January 2, 2020	37%	17%	39%	7%	Likely voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	December 25–29, 2019	37%	19%	37%	6%	Likely voters
King David University	December 23, 2019	39%	21%	33%	5%	Likely voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	December 22–24, 2019	33%	31%	28%	8%	Registered voters
Channel 9 TV	December 18, 2019	36%	22%	30%	12%	Likely voters
Channel 20 TV	December 16–17, 2019	40%	23%	31%	6%	Likely voters
Nishma Research	December 15, 2019	38%	27%	32%	3%**	Likely voters (with an online panel)*
King Solomon University	December 11–12, 2019	33%	30%	30%	7%	Registered voters
Zman Yisrael	December 4–8, 2019	37%	27%	29%	7%	Likely voters
Salomon Polling Associates, Ltd.	December 3, 2019	33%	38%	27%	2%**	Likely voters (with a weighted cell-phone-only and online panels)*
Action Now Surveys (Action Yisrael)	December 2–3, 2019	36%	21%	34%	9%	Registered voters
Gib'ul HaTzafone	November 28, 2019	37%	33%	25%	5%	Registered voters (with a weighted online panel)*
Goldman Independent Surveys	November 25–26, 2019	39%	27%	24%	10%	Likely voters
King Solomon University	November 24, 2019	28%	27%	29%	16%	Registered voters
Channel 20 TV	November 21–22, 2019	43%	27%	23%	7%	Likely voters
HaMaariv	November 17–20, 2019	29%	34%	19%	18%	Registered voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	November 17–18, 2019	35%	35%	27%	3%**	Registered voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	November 14, 2019	37%	26%	26%	11%	Likely voters
Zman Yisrael	November 11–14, 2019	40%	31%	22%	6%	Likely voters
Channel 10 TV	November 10–12, 2019	38%	24%	26%	12%	Likely voters

Notes:
* - The inclusion of cell-phone and online participation in opinion surveys has been found to be statistically uneven and should be viewed as less accurate than traditional methods (YCOR, "Effect of New Methodologies In Opinion Research," 2019).
** - The Yisraeli College of Opinion Researchers notes that polls and surveys with an undecided tally of less than <5% beyond the last two days before an election are less accurate, statistically, than polls with undecided voters comprising ≥5%.

Two-way race

Polling firm	Date	Candidate/Political Bloc														Undecided	Type of Voters Surveyed
		Yitzchok Katz (Right Bloc)	Yosef Kaduri (Left Bloc)

Zman Yisrael	November 10–12, 2019	47%	41%	9%	Likely voters
King David University	November 6–9, 2019	46%	42%	12%	Likely voters
HaMaariv	November 5–6, 2019	45%	38%	15%	Likely voters
Channel 20 TV/ Bayis HaYehudi	November 1–4, 2019	39%	39%	19%	Registered voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	October 30–November 2, 2019	37%	38%	23%	Registered voters
King Solomon University	October 27–29, 2019	36%	36%	24%	Registered voters
Salomon Polling Associates, Ltd.	October 25–26, 2019	38%	39%	17%	Likely voters
Zman Yisrael	October 23–25, 2019	39%	38%	21%	Likely voters
International Financial Insider	October 16–18, 2019	43%	37%	18%	Registered voters
Channel 20 TV	October 16, 2019	39%	33%	28%	Registered voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	October 10–11, 2019	34%	37%	26%	Registered voters
Channel 10 TV	October 6, 2019	49%	39%	7%	Likely voters
King Solomon University	September 27, 2019	37%	37%	23%	Registered voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	September 23–26, 2019	43%	41%	13%	Likely voters
Zman Yisrael	September 22, 2019	47%	42%	8%	Likely voters
Union of Dati Leumi Synogogues	September 18–19, 2019	39%	31%	25%	Registered voters
HaMaariv	September 15–17, 2019	47%	45%	6%	Likely voters
Channel 10 TV	September 11–12, 2019	40%	37%	19%	Registered voters
Action Now Surveys (Action Yisrael)	September 10–13, 2019	41%	36%	20%	Registered voters
Oved Yehudi HaBavli	September 8–9, 2019	33%	38%	27%	Registered voters
Salomon Polling Associates, Ltd.	September 5, 2019	35%	35%	28%	Registered voters
Royal Yerushalayim Dispatch	September 3–5, 2019	44%	39%	15%	Likely voters
Channel 20 TV	September 4, 2019	37%	35%	25%	Registered voters

Results

Presidential

Breakdown of the Electoral College result. Navy and cobalt are Conservative victories, Gold is a Con-Lib victory, and Light Blue is an United Center victory.

The Right Bloc candidate Yitzchok Katz won the Electoral College by a vote of 109 - winning the Northern, Yarden Valley, Yerushalayim, Western, and Eastern Districts. His opponents, the United Center Bloc's Reuven Goldschmidt, won 64 votes, winning the Central and Southern Districts while the Left Bloc's Yosef Kaduri won 19 votes from the Dervaylik District, the worse showing for the Con-Libs in history.

Nationwide, the popular vote came out to 1,936,088 votes for Katz (44.3%), 1,364,987 votes for Goldschmidt (31.1%), and 1,056,541 votes for Kaduri (23.6%).

Knesset

The next composition of the 49th session of Knesset will be:

Knesset	Years		Knesset
			RCP	CLP	TA	AY	AfY	AGSW	LNJ	Ind.	Vacan cies
49th	2020-2022		64	14	19	17	25	1	2	0	0

See also

• Politics of Yisrael
• Electoral College in Yisrael
• Party divisions of the Yisraeli Knesset